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Lot Essay
This drawing is one of a small number of drawings and paintings all with a similar composition of a kneeling youth with long strands of hair falling to their shoulders and all wearing an elongated golden hat. It has been suggested that all of them are based on a shared prototype. The earliest known example is in the Amir Huseiyn Beg album in the Topkapi Library, Istanbul (acc.no.TSK H.2151). Since that album was assembled in Turkey in AH 968 / 1560-1 AD, it suggests that the drawing itself was executed in the first half of the 16th century. A second version of the figure is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (acc.no.1973.92, illustrated right). It seems to have been produced around the same time as our drawing, though it has been noted that the museum’s example is not so well drawn (Swietochowski and Babaie 1989, p.56). These three together are all in monochrome, aside from the gold pigment in the hat, and depict a figure with very similar features.
If those three of the ‘first generation’ are fairly homogenous, those which follow are more diverse. They include examples signed by some of the most celebrated names in 17th century Safavid painting. Two are associated with Reza Abbasi: they include one in the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg executed around 1603 (acc.no.VP-705) and another in full colour and painted later in his career, in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin (acc.no.Per 260.3). An example of the same composition signed by Muhammad Ali Musavvir is in the Musée de Louvre, Paris, and is datable to the second half of the 17th century (acc.no.OA7128). Likely from the same period is an example in the British Museum, London, by Mu’in Musavvir (acc.no.1969,0616,0.3). A third generation of paintings, executed by artists beyond the Safavid realm copying Safavid prototypes, are discussed in the note for lot 31 in this sale. By that stage, the composition - of which this drawing is one of the earliest examples - had become a canonical one used by Safavid artists and those emulating them to show their skill.
The Louvre has in its collection a handful of other paintings by Shaykh Muhammad, which share many features with the present lot. These include a painting of a seated youth with colour added to the white shoes, the knotted belt, and the gold collar, features shared with the present lot (acc.no.K3427). Both figures also have hair running down in strands, with a strong black line dissipating towards the end as the hair becomes fuzzy. The signature of the artist can be found discreetly below that figure’s knee.
Shaykh Muhammad was one of the great Persian masters of the mid to late 16th century and was a member of the royal atelier. He was a pupil of the painter Dust Muhammad (see lot 23), before Dust Muhammad moved to India. For a biography see Bloom and Blair 2009.
The seal in the upper corner was identified by Anthony Welch as that of Shah Abbas, indicating that it entered the royal collection at Qazvin around 1587 (Welch 1972-8, vol.III, p.104). Ada Adamova agrees with this interpretation, adding the painting to her corpus of stamped Safavid royal pictures (Adamova 2000, p.20). Due to loss to the stamp, we have not been able to confirm this royal attribution. A reading of 'Ghulam Husayn Khan' has also been suggested for the seal.
If those three of the ‘first generation’ are fairly homogenous, those which follow are more diverse. They include examples signed by some of the most celebrated names in 17th century Safavid painting. Two are associated with Reza Abbasi: they include one in the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg executed around 1603 (acc.no.VP-705) and another in full colour and painted later in his career, in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin (acc.no.Per 260.3). An example of the same composition signed by Muhammad Ali Musavvir is in the Musée de Louvre, Paris, and is datable to the second half of the 17th century (acc.no.OA7128). Likely from the same period is an example in the British Museum, London, by Mu’in Musavvir (acc.no.1969,0616,0.3). A third generation of paintings, executed by artists beyond the Safavid realm copying Safavid prototypes, are discussed in the note for lot 31 in this sale. By that stage, the composition - of which this drawing is one of the earliest examples - had become a canonical one used by Safavid artists and those emulating them to show their skill.
The Louvre has in its collection a handful of other paintings by Shaykh Muhammad, which share many features with the present lot. These include a painting of a seated youth with colour added to the white shoes, the knotted belt, and the gold collar, features shared with the present lot (acc.no.K3427). Both figures also have hair running down in strands, with a strong black line dissipating towards the end as the hair becomes fuzzy. The signature of the artist can be found discreetly below that figure’s knee.
Shaykh Muhammad was one of the great Persian masters of the mid to late 16th century and was a member of the royal atelier. He was a pupil of the painter Dust Muhammad (see lot 23), before Dust Muhammad moved to India. For a biography see Bloom and Blair 2009.
The seal in the upper corner was identified by Anthony Welch as that of Shah Abbas, indicating that it entered the royal collection at Qazvin around 1587 (Welch 1972-8, vol.III, p.104). Ada Adamova agrees with this interpretation, adding the painting to her corpus of stamped Safavid royal pictures (Adamova 2000, p.20). Due to loss to the stamp, we have not been able to confirm this royal attribution. A reading of 'Ghulam Husayn Khan' has also been suggested for the seal.